Defense:
19

Utility:
0

Wukong - I'm Banana King

Greetings Summoners,
lately i played many games with the newest Champion in LoL: Wukong - The Monkey King. I read many other guides and tried out some stuff, and since my last few games were really dominating and epic, i want to show and explain you my way of playing Wukong. It may be a much more defensive playstyle like other Wukongs but i can guarentee that this playstyle just rocks and you will really enjoy it.

Pros / Cons

Every Champion of LoL got Pros and Cons, and the only way to play a Champion at its absolute maximum is to (mainly item-)focus at the Pros and try to compensate the Cons with the help of Masterys, Runes, Summoner-Spells and an intelligent way of playing (e.g. Lux, fully played on AP, while giving CDR and Mana Regeneration by Masterys, Runes and Clarity)

Wukong makes no difference - but it may be harder to discover his real strength and his tender spot.

Pros:+ incredible Ultimate (and i mean REALLY! incredible. more later on)+ decent damge output, already without many items+ nice armor penetration+ can be a tank destroyer if needed+ strong harrasment abilities+ very good early game+ fun to play+ tricky escape mechanism+ nice bonus-armor/magic resistance in every teamfight

Cons:- not the best farmer- lack of survivability if you dont manage him right- you dont have a solid item build. you really have to be a bit flexible (more later on)

as you may noticed there are a lot of Pros and nearly no Cons... but! since Wukong isnt the best farmer, you cant waste any gold in the wrong direction. those two cons are like a ****in synergy. i bet you wont suck with the wrong items, cause of all these awesome pros. but you wont play as good as you could play with him ;)

Runes

As i said before, you always have to focus out your Pros or try to absorb your Cons as good as you can with Runes, Masterys and Summoner Spells.

Wukongs Cons cant be fixed up by Runes, so we try to maximize his Pro side a bit.

The Marks

Greater mark of desolation
I go for 9x Greater Mark of Desolation, which gives me overall a 14,94 bonus armor penetration.
I saw guides going for AS or Crit Marks which is TOTALLY! wrong. and adding about 9 bonus dmg isnt as good as nearly 15 armor pen.

The Quints

I hate from choosing Quints, cause i want to have them all :P
But ok. We wont need any Utility-Quints, +4,5% MS could be nice, but thanks Nimbus Strike for chasing and thanks Decoy for escaping we wont need it badly.

Offensive:

you may wanna pick the quintessence of desolation to get 9,99 armor penetration? i dont think that wukong needs it. we got a +15 armor pen from the marks, and thanks to our Crushing blow we will have enought armor pen early on. In some games you may need it, e.g. against a very tanky enemy build. but in these special cases we try to buy some armor-shredding items. better take a defensive quint....

Defense:

Evasion? Resilience? Fortitude or Warding? We already got Evasion, and going fully on a dodge-build wouldnt be good against a heavy-caster team. Same for Warding, we already got our magic resistence with our Glyphs and if we play against a heavy-physical team its kinda useless. I go for Fortitude to have no worries if the enemy team got no jungler and i have to play top solo against 2. It kinda helps me getting enough last hits and being confident enough to nimbus strike some creeps. You really dont have to follow this advice, as i know that there are maybe some better quints keeping late game in mind. but i want to boost up the strong early, and so i go for Greater Quint of Fortitude, giving me a +78 HP Boost early on.

Masteries

i go for 11/19/0 as i really want to grab up both Sunder and Veteran's Scars . It both fits perfect to my style of playing wukong and i dont feel the need of a 21 Mastery Way.

Please take Sorcery instead of Alacrity . Many ppl play Wukong with a high AS, later on a explain why Wukong wont need it. and i promise you a 3% CDR can give you some kills. I cant remember a game with Wukong where i didnt chased a enemy champion and was so ****in thankfull to hit a Nimbus Strike out of cd and just in time before the enemy was safe. 3% CDR can make a difference, 4% AS wont.

Nimbleness is also important. If you dont master this, you wont have to buy Dodge-Runes. With Runes and Masterys Wukong will have nearly 20% dodge chance, which is really nice.

Rune and Mastery Sum Up

If you dont wanna read in detail or if you just wanna have a short summary:

The Runes and the Masterys i recommended you will boost everything wukong needs.

Summoner Spells

If you dont wanna pick Exhaust, please check your mastery page. I highly recommend Exhaust cause you can easily take out the physical enemy carry.
I LOVE Flash with wukong, it makes so much fun to get to an enemy where he never would have expected you with Flash + Nimbus Strike (needs some experience ofc). It also can safe your *** if Decoy is not enough (e.g. gotta get chased by whole team, Decoy + Flash can be a funny combination cause no one sees your flash... )
Also had some situations where i did my Cyclone bad or the enemy was able to flash out - but i flashed too ;)

I recommend Flash + Exhaust, but Ghost will work good too. Ignite is nice for some early and mid game kills but i dont feel the need for it. Cleanse could be usefull but with an intelligent use of Decoy we wont need it (more later on)

Skills in Detail

Passive - Stone Skin

Wukong's armor and magic resistance are increased by 4 / 6 / 8 for each nearby enemy champion.
Its truely a nice passive, granting you a good bonus to your magic resistance and armor for every hero within 1400 Range (huge!)

Decoy

Wukong becomes stealthed for 1.5 seconds and leaves an uncontrollable decoy that doesn't attack or move on the place he activated it. The decoy will deal magic damage to nearby enemies after 1.5 seconds.

Yeaaaaah, perfect skill to escape and trick your enemy. It can be also nice for baiting and getting "fake-stunned". Moreover it is really important in teamfights. Used correctly you will be able to "dodge" nukes. Timing is everything.

Nimbus Strike

Wukong dashes on a cloud toward a target enemy and sends out images to attack up to 2 additional enemies near his target, dealing physical damage to each enemy struck. He also gains an attack speed bonus for 3 seconds after using this skill.

Your Bread and Butter People Cutter. Important for harrass, chasing, flying in to ulti, etc etc...

Cyclone

Wukong's staff grows outward and he spins it around for up to 4 seconds, dealing damage every half second and knocking up enemies once per cast. Wukong gains 5% movement speed bonus every half second for the duration of the spell, with the bonus disappearing once he stops spinning.

Skill Usage

Decoy

Decoy can be used in many diffrent ways. I bet you all saw e.g. the video featuring Phreak, how he tricked chasing enemies with Decoy ... i dont have any Replay from me at the moment, but i want to give you some advices...

- If you are getting chased by a single person try to find a bush. Simply stop in front of it, use decoy and e.g. turn around 180°... if you are able to create a "3second gap" between your enemy and your ***... you are safe.

- If you are in a bush, e.g. to gank soon, and somebody uses Clairvoyance on this brush... simply use Decoy and disappear. they wont see you ;)

- If you're having a hard time, e.g. Solo vs 2 Champs... Try to harrass one with your 3-Click-Combo (details below) and simply use Decoy to get back. It works great on ppl like Singed... i dont know how often i met a stupid singed who tossed my image back, just cause i did my combo, turned around fast and pressed Decoy... ofc this is about timing, so practice before you do such things ;)

- If you are going to be stunned, e.g. by Lux or Taric, you can let yourself get fake-stunned. Press Decoy before their stun arrives and they will try to burst you up, loosing mana for nothing.

- Also important in a teamfight. Decoy got a low CD later on, so go in with you ulti, toss em up and simplay press Decoy to dodge their first Stuns, Nukes, etc. it really works often and this is one reason why Banshee's Veil is not needed that much... (Item Discussion later on)

....and many more reasons. so fun to play :D Decoy + Flash is also nice, if you really get chased down by mana... no one will even notice that you have flashed... you are just disappeared :D

The 3-Click Combo

now wukongs combo: its really similiar to the well-known jax combo, but with a higher amount of damage and you you need a few clicks more.
just fly over with your Nimbus 2000 and give that guy a Crusing Blow in his face, followed by an auto-attack as well. Its important to do this auto-attack after Crushing Blow. Crushing Blow resets your attack-cd, so you can do an extra attack (while your enemy got reduced armor).
if done correctly you will smash your enemies. combined with Decoy you will be able to harrass even if you play 1v2 on top lane (even against a stunner). just practice a bit, this combo isnt hard to master but very important for a succesful wukong.

+ + AUTOATTACK

Items

Finally ...the maybe most important section of this guide...

You usually should try to get Toplane solo. Wukong got a strong early game and cause of the runes and masterys he got a great survivability early game. If you cant go solo top you probably pick up Doran's Blade as first item, cause you wont get all the damage and be able to get a kill more easy.

As i said before you have to be flexible. The Item-Build may be a bit chaotic ... you have to make a few decisions but in most cases the main build against mixed teams will work best.

Starting Items

Grab a Doran's Shield. Together with your Runes and Masterys you will have +246 Health and a really nice Regeneration. The Armor Boost also fits good.

First Core Item

Phage is your first core item, adding some damage and health. The passive is great for chasing enemies. Perfect item for wukong, no coin will be wasted.

First situnational Item

or or

ok here we go. now we have to add one item, depending on our enemies.

If you play against many squishy hybrid or physical enemies like Ashe or Teemo i recommend Sword of the Occult ... you wont need more defensive at this moment, and you can be sure that you will get some kills against those squishy bastards. Sword of the Occult can be very powerful, just dont get too greedy and with a good use of Decoy you wont loose any charges...

If you play against a team with great casters ( Veigar, Brand, etc) you should get Hexdrinker ... i really kinda felt in love with this item. its cheap, gives AD and more magic resistance and a nice passive which can save your ***...

If you play against a really tanky team you may consider Madred's Razors. I recommended this item if you have to be an anti-tank. You have to judge yourself if the enemy tank is a threat.

Second Core Item

Our second core item is The Bloodthirster, giving us a high amount of Attack Damage and a nice lifesteal. you can store up to +100 AD, which is the highest possible AD bonus from any item. just great for wukong.

Second Situnational Item // First Defensive Item

or
Now i would like to add a bit survivability. You have to judge if the enemy casters are still a threat after you already should've bought Hexdrinker... i bet not, but if you really have to struggle hard with them, go for:

It got a great passive, the Health boost is also nice and later on Atma's Impaler will benefit from it too.. the mana isnt that bad, but to be honest i usually dont have big mana problems...

Third Core Item

The Final Item

if the game is still running grab the impaler... it will give you a huge AD bonus cause you should be quite healthy now... the armor is also nice, perfect combination !

For those who want read all that ****:

Final Build against a mixed Team

Final Build against a HEAVY MAGIC Team

Final Build against a quite squishy Team

Final Build against a HEAVY PHYSICAL and HP-TANKY Team

Consumables

are not mentioned. I dont have to tell you if you need a potion or a ward.

totally wrong items...

In this section i want to tell you why my item build is the best for wukong. Its always hard to tell although i played many matches, cause every match is diffrent. i'm maybe in a diffrent mood, the enemies are maybe noobs, etc. i truely think my top build rocks, and i rocked many times with it, but to face all critism of those guys who wanna tell me that Trinity Force is a must-have or those who still think Phantom Dancer is worth nearly 3k gold, i wanna go for some theorycraft. just read :D

First of all lets look at Wukongs Skills.

Crushing Blow

Crushing Blow got no benefit, either from AD or AP. but it kinda lessens the need for AS even more, cause it gives you a free-hit after its use. The Cooldown for Crushing Blow will be below 5seconds.

Decoy

As you easily can see, AD > AP. But what about AS? as i mentioned, you get a free hit after Crushing Blow, making a high AS less important. Also, you usually stay in fights with your ulti, where you dont need any AS. you wont spin faster or gain any other benefit from you AS, while doing your Ulti. You just need AD.

another reasons why AS kinda sucks is, that, although you will have great armor, magic res and hp, you wont stay in a fight for many auto-attacks. most time you have to harass or chase enemies, doing this just with 3 hits, Nimbus Strike + Crushing Blow + Auto-Attack. No benefit from your AS. in Teamfights, where you gonna stay a while at nearby enemies, you will hopefully do Cyclone ... so please, dont buy AS items. i see so many wukongs playing Phantom Dancer... its just WRONG!

now another part, talking about items that give you a Armor Penetration. As i said first, its good to outmax your Pros, and armorpen is really a big point for wukong. so lets have a closer look at The Black Cleaver, Last Whisper and Youmuu's Ghostblade ...

Youmuu's Ghostblade

now Youmuu's Ghostblade... sounds good, but the AS boost isnt needed. Critical Strike chance is also kinda-wasted, cause the chance to trigger after our Crushing Blow is really low... and most time we will do this 3-Click-Combo... Really, The Bloodthirster is better for Wukong and just a bit more expensive...

Infinity Edge

OK! I UNDERSTAND, AD is important, so i buy Infinity Edge ... please dont. i told you in the beginning that you wont suck with wukong with items like these... probably you will rock... but +80AD isnt as nice as +100AD from The Bloodthirster ... and you dont need this critical strike chance so badly that the passive would make a huge impact on your game, and btw, you wont do much autoattacks ;) Infinity Edge is just too expensive.

dont get me wrong... Youmuu's Ghostblade and Trinity Force are useful for Wukong. mostly cause of the ms and mana boost. but i just like my style of playing wukong. i dont die, i got my ulti up for every teamfight and i'm able to chase some champs down with my 3-Click-Combo. Also i have to mention that i often smash those little casters up and maybe thats why i got no problems with mana cause i often see myself blue-buffed.

just try it out a few times, it requires a patient playstyle. be smart and u will get your kills ;)

Final Words

Yeaaaaah ;)

This is my first guide, so please help me to improve it.

I want to add a section for how to play in early, mid and lategame, as well as a detailed way of farming. The final build costs about 15000, i think this should be farmable for everyone on a decent skill level.

Please try it out before you start to flame ;) I'm thankful about every good critism.

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!